TRIPOLI/TUNIS: The chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation has defected from Moammar Gadhafi’s administration and fled to neighboring Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said Tuesday.
Libyan rebels also said they had information that Shokri Ghanem, 68, had defected, a move that if confirmed would deal a blow to Gadhafi’s efforts to shore up his 41-year rule.

“He is in a hotel with a group of other Libyan officials,” the Tunisian source told Reuters. Another Tunisian security source said he was on his way to the capital Tunis.
A government official in Tripoli said there was no sign Ghanem defected.
Any defection by Ghanem could be significant. The oil chief is an internationally respected technocrat credited with liberalizing Libya’s economy and energy sector.

Russia hosted a representative of Gadhafi’s government in Moscow Tuesday and called on Tripoli to stop using force against civilians, comply fully with U.N. Security Council resolutions and withdraw armed groups from cities.
“The answer we heard cannot be called negative,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. He suggested Gadhafi’s government was making such steps conditional on NATO and rebels calling a halt to the use of force.
Libya was ready to look at peace proposals based on those suggested by the African Union and to comply with Security Council resolutions, he said.

“The only things that our interlocutors from Tripoli noted today was the necessity of the insurgents accepting analogous steps and that NATO also stop bombing,” Lavrov said.
British armed forces attacked a training base for bodyguards for Gadhafi’s inner circle and intelligence buildings in the capital, the British Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
In central Tripoli, NATO airstrikes hit two buildings including one a Libyan spokesman said contained files detailing corruption cases against government officials who have defected.

Officials summoned reporters after the attack in the early hours to visit the two damaged buildings, which they said housed internal security forces and Libya’s anti-corruption agency. One building was in flames.
Thousands have been killed in the conflict, the bloodiest revolt of what has been called the “Arab Spring” of protests that has removed autocratic leaders in Tunis and Cairo.
Libyan rebels virtually abandoned the Dehiba-Wazin border post on the frontier with southern Tunisia and at least three rebels were killed and several others injured by Libyan government shellfire, a witness called Walid said Tuesday.